“What exactly is going on?”
An Dong stared at his status bar, utterly bewildered by his rapidly dwindling health, a situation that left him in a panic and completely at a loss.
“Hmm, why don’t you take a guess, Big Brother An Dong?”
Xiao, twirling lightly in place, then turned to An Dong, a playful smile gracing her features.
“It wouldn’t be any fun if I just told you outright~”
“This is…”
An Dong’s eyes darted to the abnormal status marked above his health bar, and a sudden realization struck him.
“Poisoned?”
Only then did An Dong finally register the title of the seemingly adorable little girl before him…
“[Poison Maiden]…”
He murmured.
Yet, he hadn’t detected Xiao unleashing any poison-attributed attacks on him.
In [Companion God’s Realm], there were two well-known poison-wielding professions: the Poison Dagger Assassin and the Forest Archer, but Xiao clearly wasn’t either of them. Moreover, An Dong hadn’t felt the sting of a blade entering his body.
Xiao’s only opportunity to act had been during An Dong’s careless embrace just moments ago.
Ah! That’s right! The embrace? If it was at such close range, it wouldn’t be surprising if some poison-attributed magic with subtle visual effects went unnoticed!
“Could it be a poison-attributed spell without an incantation?”
“Pfft! Pfft! Wrong answer~”
Xiao smiled, shaking her head, and pouted, making an adorable sound as if signaling an incorrect choice, her hands, adorned with thin white gloves, crossing before her petite body to form an ‘X’.
Then, with a slight, helpless shrug, she glanced at An Dong with a faint smile.
“The correct answer is…”
“I am a [Poisonous Being] myself~”
Eh?
A [Poisonous Being], by definition, refers to any living creature or item that is inherently poisonous.
An Dong gazed at the cute and docile Xiao before him, utterly unable to reconcile her image with that of a terrifying [Poisonous Being].
In his mind, all [Poisonous Beings] were hideous venomous toads, sinister vipers, or similar creatures; yet, this short, adorable, and well-behaved little girl with beautiful emerald-green short hair, by all accounts, should be an angel praised by humanity, not a [Poisonous Being].
As if understanding An Dong’s confusion, or perhaps simply no longer wishing to conceal it, Xiao met his bewildered gaze.
She smiled softly as she peeled off the pristine white gloves from both her hands, exposing her fair, tender small hands to the slightly cool air of the arena.
With just a slight wiggle of her fingers, a faint purplish-brown hue began to emerge beneath the fair skin of her soft digits, as if some malevolent, terrifying essence was biding its time, ready to corrupt everything it touched.
“Is that… the truth of the [Poison Maiden]?”
An Dong watched in disbelief as the purplish-brown color slowly crept across Xiao’s small, soft hands, which should have been fair and tender.
In that instant, he found himself blurring the lines between game and reality, uncertain whether the delicate little girl before him was merely a player bearing the title of [Poison Maiden], or a pitiful child afflicted by some strange illness.
Xiao, however, was neither aware nor concerned with An Dong’s internal turmoil; she simply smiled, sweet and adorable.
“That’s right.”
She nodded gently.
“Well, it’s nothing strange; it’s just my companion-level skill.”
She tilted her head slightly, her eyes crinkling into a smile.
Hearing her genuinely cheerful tone, An Dong let out a soft sigh of relief, momentarily forgetting that he was still afflicted by the [Poisoned State]. His long health bar, though slowly, was continuously diminishing little by little.
“Big Brother An Dong~”
Xiao smiled, tilting her head back to kindly remind him.
“If you don’t cast [Healing Spell] soon, you’re going to die~”
It seemed Xiao was not at all unfamiliar with her opponent’s fighting style, unlike An Dong. In fact, she appeared quite knowledgeable about An Dong, a tank class, possessing a fourth-tier [Healing Spell] skill.
“…”
An Dong was at a loss for words, facing this cunning little girl who had tricked him into being poisoned, yet was now kindly reminding him to watch his health.
He simply braced the large shield in his hand defensively before him, slowly raising his right hand, adorned with the ring Suo Liya had given him.
“[Healing Spell]”
“Hehe~”
Seeing An Dong’s highly vigilant posture, Xiao couldn’t help but chuckle, covering her mouth as she burst into laughter.
“Big Brother An Dong, it’s alright; you don’t need to be so wary~”
She bent over with laughter, tucking the pristine white gloves she had removed into the slender black belt at her waist.
“My companion skill: [Poisonous Skin].“
“It grants immunity to non-control abnormal statuses, and touching others will inflict extreme poison, causing 20 damage per second, lasting for one minute, with stackable effects.”
“In other words, as long as I don’t touch you, you won’t get poisoned.”
Xiao’s eyes narrowed, revealing a mischievous grin.
So that was it. No wonder his health had started dropping right after Xiao hugged him.
And now that he thought about it, Xiao had even specifically taken off her pristine white gloves before rushing over to embrace him.
How could he have possibly overlooked such an unnatural action at the time!?
An Dong frowned bitterly, silently chastising himself for his carelessness.
“Oh, by the way, this companion skill of mine is a passive ability and cannot be deactivated. Furthermore, the [Poisoned State] ignores affiliations; both allies and opponents will indiscriminately suffer damage if touched by me.”
“Well, even though I’m like this, I don’t lose health myself.”
Xiao spread her small hands, now transformed from fair to purplish-brown, speaking with a hint of helplessness, as if she, too, couldn’t control her own toxicity.
The purplish-brown corrosion, having consumed her small hands, did not stop there, but continued to spread upwards along her forearms.
“Is that why you wear those white gloves?”
An Dong’s gaze flickered to the pristine white gloves hanging at Xiao’s waist.
“Well, one could say that’s part of the reason, perhaps?”
Xiao tilted her head back, propping her small face with her raised right arm, and pouted slightly, an expression of faint contemplation on her face.
Her entire arm, gradually stained purplish-brown, stood in stark contrast to her still fair and adorable small face.
“Oh dear, that was close! I forgot to put my gloves back on.”
She exclaimed, quickly snatching one of the gloves from her waist and slipping it onto her left hand.
Immediately, the purplish-brown hue that had been creeping up Xiao’s fair neck halted. Her right hand, now covered by the pristine white glove, only had its forearm stained purplish-brown. On the other side of her body, where she hadn’t worn a glove, the purplish-brown had already spread to her neck, showing no signs of receding.
Fortunately, because Xiao had promptly put on one glove, her adorable and delicate face remained unaffected by the purplish-brown.
Xiao’s petite body was thus divided into two halves by the eerie purplish-brown toxin, creating a unique and strange beauty in its asymmetry.
“The more important reason for wearing these gloves, of course, is…”
Xiao flashed a proud, boastful smile, spreading the fingers of her left hand as she admired the pristine, thin glove.
“These are [Companion-level Equipment], and they suit me perfectly.”
Oh, so it was Companion-level Equipment…
It seemed Ivan’s wish to find a similar pair of gauntlets for cosmetic purposes wouldn’t be fulfilled after all.
Picturing Ivan’s eager anticipation before the finals, hoping to add Xiao as a friend after the match to ask where her gloves dropped, An Dong shook his head with a wry smile.
It was common knowledge in [Companion God’s Realm] that Companion-level Equipment, both in terms of attributes and appearance, was always unique.
“Now then! Here’s another question!”
Xiao suddenly seemed to regain her enthusiasm. She raised her left hand, and with the pristine white glove, gently pointed her index finger at An Dong.
“In your eyes, Big Brother An Dong, what profession am I?”
“Hmm…”
An Dong frowned helplessly, glancing at his still relatively healthy health bar and the lingering poisoned state. He could only lift his head to look at Xiao once more.
“Pugilist? Mage? Cleric?”
He ventured uncertainly.
Based solely on Xiao’s pristine white gloves and her dark short skirt, these were the only three professions he could guess.
“Pfft! Pfft! All wrong!”
She pouted again, her asymmetrical arms, one fair and one purplish-brown, crossed before her petite body, forming another ‘X’.
“The correct answer is…”
“I’m a pure artisan profession: [Alchemist]~”
Huh!?
A massive question mark rose in An Dong’s mind, and he displayed an expression of utter shock and confusion.
Since when could pure artisan professions enter the arena!?